From the December 26, 2022, Collector "Six famous generals of the Civil War: The Good & the Badad" by Curt Smothers.
How he rated them:
Good and Bad was relative to their military skill. Ugly refers to generals lacking in military skill and undeserving of their rank.
Here they are:
THE GOOD
U.S. Grant & Robert E. Lee
THE BAD
George McClellan & Braxton Bragg
THE UGLY
Benjamin Butler and John B. Floyd
Read the article to see wht he ranked them like that.
--Old Secesh
** Henry Haupt was Lincoln's railroad man.
** He was appointed to the USMA at West Point at age 14 and graduated at age 18. He graduated in July and resigned his commission in September.
** At the Second Battle of Manassas, Union General Pope needed troops. But the question was, where were those troops. These troops were with General Samuel Davis Sturgiss. He kept 10,000 troops out of the action.
** Haupt knew how to use railroads in a wartime sitiation. The United States Military Rail Road was formed to make sure the railroads could help the war effort.
** He rose to prominence during McClellan's Peninsular Campaign
** He was especially good at building bridges, including the 400 foot long, 100 foot-high trestle over the Potomac Creek in Virginia.
--Old Secesh
6. James A. Garfield (Union)-- 20th President of United States. Defeated fellow Union General Winfield Scott Hancock in 1880 election. Shot while in office. Died at hands of his physicians.
5. John C. Breckenridge (Confederate)-- Vice President of U.S. before the war.
4. George B. McClellan (Union)-- Lost to Abraham Lincoln for president in 1864. Governor of New Jersey after the war.
3. Stand Watie (Confederate)-- Last Confederate general to surrender. Was a Cherokee Indian.
2. George Crook (Union)-- Made quite a name for himself after the war fighting Indians out West. Involved with Custer's Last Stand and fighting Geronimo.
1. Leonidas Polk (Confederate)-- Episcopal priest and bishop. Killed in the Atlanta Campaign.
--Old Secesh
In the last post,I mentioned this man's name. Even though he was a West Point graduate and Union general, not many people know of him. I didn't. That why it was our "Frank" question. I like to Roadtrip Thru History where I start with one thing and see where it takes me, much like finding a road and seeing where you end up.
So, we're going to Roadtrip Charles Gilbert.
And, what better place to start in the unknown than with good ol' Wikipedia?
CHARLES CHAMPION GILBERT
(March 1, 1822 to January 17, 1903)
United States Army officer during the Mexican War and Civil War.
Born in Zanesville, Ohio, and graduated from West Point in the famed Class of 1846, finishing 21st of 59 students.
His classmates included twenty future Civil War generals, including George B. McClellan, Stonewall Jackson, George Stoneman, and George Pickett.
During the Mexican War he served in the 3rd U.S. Infantry and 1st U.S. Infantry and fought at Veracruz and Mexico City.
Do You Know Me Now?-- Old Secesh
Fact 8: Both Stone and McClellan blamed Col. Edward Baker for the tremendous loss.
When called before the Joint Committee, Charles Stone testified that he had given Edward Baker the responsibility to decide whether to send more troops across the river or to withdraw the ones already there. By sending reinforcements, Stone argued, "Colonel Baker chose to bring battle."
General McClellan agreed. After hearing Stone's version of the events, McClellan publicly exonerated Stone from any blame and published in an army circular that "the disaster was caused by errors committed by the immediate commander [Baker]."
Although Stone and McClellan both testified that Baker was the cause of the defeat, Stone remained the popular scapegoat for the failure. When Stone was called to appear before the Joint Committee, they laid the blame on him. Stone was the friend of McClellan, a known Democrat, and his word amounted to little for the abolitionist Radical Republicans who dominated the committee.
They accused Stone of disloyalty to the Union, and Stone was arrested on February 8, 1862, on the orders of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. He was taken to Fort Lafayette, a prison designated for known Confederate sympathizers, where he was held in solitary confinement without trial.
With no charges filed against him, Stone was released after six months, and Stanton ordered him demoted to colonel. and kept out of field work. In 1864, Stone resigned from the army.
--Old Secesh
American Battlefield Trust.
Battle of Ball's Bluff, Virginia fought October 21, 1861.
1. The Battle of Ball's Bluff was the result of a "slight demonstration."
On the Virginia side of the Potomac River, Confederates, commanded by Col. Nathan "Shanks" Evans, numbered less than 3,000. he began worrying that his position would be flanked by Federals. Opposing him was Brigadier general Charles P. Stone's Corps of Observation.
On October 16, Evans to abandon his position at Leesburg. When Stone reported this, Union commander McClellan ordered McCall's troops to advance immediately, then had second thoughts and rescinded the order. Instead, he ordered Stone to make a "slight demonstration" toward Evans to see what the enemy intentions were.
In the meantime, Confederate General Beauregard had ordered Evans to return to Leesburg.
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2. Union troops crossed the Potomac River based on faulty intelligence.
After Stone's "slight demonstration" failed to get any reaction from Evans, Stone ordered a reconnaissance party to cross the river at Ball's Bluff to gain further information on the Confederate positions.
--Old Secesh
The Battle of Ball's Bluff led to the creation of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, the bane of many a Union officer. (I can't help but chuckle thinking about the story of Benjamin Butler appearing before the committee after the mess at Fort Fisher. Supposedly he was in the middle of testifying that the fort could not be taken when news of its fall reached Washington, D.C.)
Both Brigadier General Charles P. Stone and McClelland blamed Col. Edward Baker for the tremendous loss. But the committee, made up of members of the U.S. Congress were not about to place the blame on one of their own.
So, the committee went after Stone and had him arrested and confined for six months. In the end, this ruined Stone's military career..
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** A good question was brought up by one of the people in attendance and that was "Was the California Brigade made up of mostly men from California?"
Answer: The California Brigade was kind of a misnomer as very few were from California. Some had been out to California and returned. Most of the men were from Philadelphia and New York City.
** West Point grads had problems commanding such large numbers of troops as were now in uniform for the war. Before that, most had never commanded more than a company or regiment at most.
** Stone engineered the base of the Statue of Liberty.
--Old Secesh
